Sidney Smith

Robert Sidney Smith (February 13, 1877 – October 20, 1935), known as Sidney Smith, was the creator of the influential comic strip The Gumps, based on an idea by Captain Joseph M. Patterson, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune.

Biography He was born in Bloomington, Illinois. The son of a dentist, Smith never finished high school and began drawing cartoons for his hometown newspaper when he was 18. He also delivered chalk talks and worked in newspaper art departments in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

In 1908, he signed on as a sports cartoonist at the Chicago Examiner where he created a talking goat in a feature, Buck Nix, which involved continuity: "What will tomorrow bring?" In 1911, Smith moved to the Chicago Tribune, where he introduced a new goat character when Old Doc Yak began as a daily on February 5, 1912, with the Sunday page starting a month later on March 10. In either 1912 or early 1913 he began creating "Old Doc Yak" animated films. Some sources show the first cartoon as appearing in 1912 whereas the Library of Congress lists 3 films in 1913, 13 in 1914 and 2 in 1915. This is the first animated series with a recurring character. It was distributed through Selig films, a major Chicago-based studio. No films seem to have survived, but a single printed background was in the files of Smith's final assistant Andy Hettinger.

At the Chicago Tribune on October 28, 1914, he started a panel, "Light Occupations", which ran alongside an untitled local sports-oriented feature. Expanding from sports into a variety of recurring strips, it initially appeared in various odd sizes, continuing until Saturday, January 20, 1917.

From goats to Gumps

The last Old Doc Yak ended February 10, 1917, with the well-dressed Yak and his family leaving their house, wondering who might next move into it. The last panel showed only the empty house. On February 12, 1917, in the space formerly occupied by Old Doc Yak, newspapers displayed the initial episodes of The Gumps, showing them moving into the same house.

The Gumps had a 42-year run in newspapers, continuing until October 17, 1959. The strip, its merchandising (toys, games, a popular song, playing cards, food products) and media adaptations made Smith a wealthy man. In addition to his townhouse, he had a large estate near Chicago and a farm. He believed in physical fitness, keeping in shape with amateur boxing and long-distance running. Mary Gold's death in 1929—one of the earliest cartoon deaths—was a media sensation, attracting intense interest across the country.

In 1922, Smith signed a million-dollar contract ($100,000 per year for ten years). Two years later, he published the 183-page Andy Gump, His Life Story (1924). On October 20, 1935, he signed a new contract, giving him $150,000 a year. On his way home from signing that contract, he died in a head-on collision. He was 58 years old. It is often reported that Smith crashed a brand new Rolls-Royce that was given to him by The Chicago Tribune at this time. This is only a legend. Smith was given a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, chassis number 14MG, in 1922,

Smith was buried at Rosehill Cemetery.

Influence The Gumps inspired Amos 'n' Andy and thus had a huge influence on the introduction of radio serial continuity and radio-television situation comedies, as detailed by broadcast historian Elizabeth McLeod in the "Andy Gump to Andy Brown" section of her popular culture essay, "Amos 'n' Andy—In Person," and her book, The Original Amos 'n' Andy: Freeman Gosden, Charles Correll, and the 1928–43 Radio Serial. Mainly due to the research of McLeod, Sidney Smith is now regarded as a seminal figure in 20th-century popular culture.

Books Herb Galewitz compiled daily strips for his book, Sidney Smith's The Gumps, published in 1974 by Charles Scribner's Sons. LOAC Essentials 2: The Gumps (2013)